'Top Chef' Week 15 Recap: Cold Mountain

Our Top Chefs competed on the mountaintops of Whistler, British Columbia this week. Photo courtesy of Bravo TV.

Our Top Chefs competed on the mountaintops of Whistler, British Columbia this week. Photo courtesy of Bravo TV.

Kevin PangTribune reporter

For the past 15 weeks, I’ve been given this platform to write about "Top Chef" each Wednesday night. I receive emails afterward from viewers who agree and disagree with my assessment, often with boiling passion and excessive usage of exclamation points.

There are a hundred other sites writing segment-by-segment recaps. I needn't waste your time; you’ve already seen the show. What’s more important is perspective. If I sound didactic, it’s because writing Sarah Grueneberg cooking a braised rabbit leg with cherries, hazelnut and sauerkraut is incidental to me.

Once more pontificating, as we head into the final three:

1) This is, first and foremost, a television show for your entertainment, story-boarded by producers, edited on Final Cut Pro, spliced into a coherent and digestible 44-minute episode. In television, predictability is death. Whatever you’re led to believe, know that the opposite is likely to happen. This episode, they play up Beverly Kim as the tough underdog who keeps getting up at the 8-count. They have other contestants call her a formidable opponent, that she’s a tiger on the prowl (or as Sarah called her, the silent horse). She was resurrected on “Last Chance Kitchen” and is now to be reckoned with. Immediately, I knew she’d be sent home.

2) When Beverly was eliminated, Sarah stared into her eyes and said tearfully, "You’re amazing. You’re amazing." Beverly responded, "Go Chicago!" You see?! They hugged! They’re not mad at each other! Or are they? Do we know for sure? All season, I’ve received letters telling me because how certain contestants acted on "Top Chef," they will now never visit their restaurant. They forwarded me letters sent to these chefs, and they didn’t hold back in the language. Behold the power of television: It crafts black and white characters that fit one-name descriptors. She’s the mean one. She’s the bullied one. She’s the goofy one. And then to have viewers feel passionate enough to write me, often at length, shows how influential and dangerous television can be at casting heroes or villains. I won’t defend some of the soundbites, but my parents always told me to view folks as three-dimensional figures, not caricatures. Complain if you like, but you are complaining about a television show. Write to "America’s Funniest Home Videos "and express your displeasure at the bat-to-crotch hits instead.

3) When emailing me, you invalidate your point the moment you use the "b" word to describe a female chef. Stop.

4) When Paul, Sarah and Beverly started ice picking in the second round, did anyone think this would make a great Lifetime Original Movie?

5) Around week six of the show, a colleague asked who I think would be the final three. I swear, I said: "Lindsay, Paul and Sarah." What do I base this on? Nothing. What does this prove? I’m really good at wildly guessing.